A system employing a high pin-count integrated circuit such as a processor generally requires a printed circuit board (PCB) having high density electrical traces around the socket for the integrated circuit. Many times some of the traces in the PCB need to route signals that exit on one side of an integrated circuit to devices on the opposite side of the integrated circuit, and the PCB may need many layers to route traces that cross under the integrated circuit and socket. A high layer count for a PCB generally means high PCB cost, more signal integrity issues, and a longer design time. In particular, the high signal counts used for interfacing a processor with memory, IO devices, or other processors on a PCB such as the motherboard of a computer or server often require high trace congestion near the processor socket. The trace congestion in a PCB can similarly increase PCB and overall system cost, require a larger PCB and overall system, and create more signal integrity issues.
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